Senator Jennings Randolph Campaign Button
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Title
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Senator Jennings Randolph Campaign Button
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Description
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Campaign button for one of Senator Jennings Randolph's bids for U.S. Senate from 1960 to 1978.
Jennings Randolph served in the U.S. Congress for 40 years. He was born in Salem, Harrison County. His grandfather, Jesse Randoph, was the first Mayor of Salem, a member of the state legislature, and the founder of Salem College. In 1923, Jennings was elected to Salem College's board of trustees, where he served for 50 years. He worked as a reporter and sports editor for the Clarksburg Telegram as a college student, and after he graduated in 1924, he worked in Charleston for West Virginia Review. In 1926, he became the athletic director at Davis and Elkins College. In 1930, at the age of 28, Randolph ran for Congress in the 2nd District. He lost to a 3-term Republican incumbent by only 1,111 votes. In 1932, he won the seat with 53 percent of the vote. This was part of the FDR landslide. He was a solid supporter of Roosevelt's New Deal, and worked with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on a project to create a model town at Arthurdale. He was re-elected in the next six elections, but was defeated in 1946 when Republicans won a big majority in the House.
He became director of public relations at Capital Airlines, which later became part of United Airlines. In January of 1958, U.S. Senator Matthew Neely died. Governor Underwood appointed Representative John Hoblitzell to fill the vacancy until a special election could be held in November. Randolph ran for the seat in November, and defeated former Governor Maryland for the Democratic nomination. He went on to win the general election with 59 percent of the vote. Randolph won the rest of his elections by decent margins until 1978
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Date
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circa 1960-1978
